Conventional neurosurgery is limited in its ability to treat deep seated tumors because of the necessity of cutting through normal brain and vasculature to obtain access to the tumor. Radiation therapy carries with it the problems of high dose ionizing radiation which is both destructive to normal tissue and like chemotherapy oftentimes ineffective in stopping tumor growth.
A fast growing malignancy deep inside the brain is difficult to treat because existing surgical procedures require cutting through or otherwise damaging normal brain structures. In general, both the patient's post-operative condition and his prognosis for recovery are often poor. Partly because of this, a research area has sprung up in which generalized hyperthermia, introduced by radio-frequency irradiation of the tumor's region, is used in an attempt to kill the tumor cells. If there were some way of sufficiently localizing hyperthermia to the tumor itself, hyperthermia could be a much more effective adjuvant or primary treatment method for brain tumors. The present invention provides such a method.